Monday Message

Mending is a great skill to learn and can help add a longer life to your clothes!

Building skills is what we are working on. It is like filling a piggy bank, only we will continue to build on them.

Mending

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/25494/simple-fixes-and-mending-techniques/page/all

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/53198839320671394/

http://freshlypicked.com/blogs/freshly-picked/11696753-how-to-fix-a-hole-in-your-jeans

I was once in line behind an Amish farmer in Kalona at a favorite bulk food store. He was getting a 50 pound bag of potatoes. While behind him I noticed his coveralls had several patches in them and each patch was lovingly sewed with tiny stitches all around the patch. I thought how loved he must be for someone to do that to help him stretch his hard earned money.

Money is hard worked for, we should be wise and make our things go as far as we can and when we make a purchase, seriously think how many hours of hard work went into paying for it. We might rethink our frivolous purchasing. Just some food for thought.  

Grocery shopping

Another silent taker of dollars are trips to the store. So making menus and sticking to them having a good stocked pantry or food storage helps even more.

http://penniesandpancakes.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-day-grocery-budget-menu-plan.html#.U71qac5OnIU - I think she has some good ideas here.

http://www.wikihow.com/Grocery-Shop-and-Cook-Frugally - some good ideas here to!

http://www.servingjoyfully.com/2012/05/31/budget-series-frugal-living-groceries/ - now as you read these just take what would be helpful. Grocery prices are constantly going up and where the people live in the article may be somewhere cheaper or not.

We need to learn how to combat the higher prices. Building your skills helps. Sometimes it's good to get groceries weekly or in two week intervals. I go once a month. I have a set amount that if I did not have storage I could not make it work. And I feel I am pretty frugal so when you see so much for a month for a family of five look with scrutiny. I looked at the first one and thought, okay they have stuff on hand or they could not do it. So don’t kick yourself for not being just like someone else. We are just collecting ideas which could work in our circumstances. Life is not about being better then others.

Cooking from scratch keeps popping up...

http://cooking-from-scratch.blogspot.com
here is a time-saving cooking from scratch http://www.foodstoragemoms.com/20-ways-use-frozen-pasta-save-money/

to end with a great scratch site…
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/foodsavings/tp/Learn-How-To-Cook-From-Scratch.html

So keep learning skills as you can, it's a powerful, freeing thing!

I know you are busy so just bookmark and learn at your own rate. You do not need to do it all at one time, work learning into your schedules. Make it a challenge.  :)